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Inverness Squeeze Through: This long overdue Scottish Cup encounter went ahead after a nine week delay and it was Inverness that squeezed into the next round after Daniel Mackay scored the winner with five minutes left. James Keatings got the opener in 35 seconds but Jack Murray deservedly headed Buckie level fifteen minutes in. A shot from distance by Sean Welsh restored the visitors advantage but a final flurry of activity saw Callum Murray equalise only for Dan to score two minutes later. Credit to Buckie for making this difficult for the youthful Inverness side and a trip to Dingwall beckons.

It's not the worst draw to be honest as we have a decent record of putting green and white hooped sides out of the Scottish Cup. A cold mad March night, potential banana skin fixture with the possibility of a scalp for the Highland League side. What's not to enjoy about the early rounds of the Scottish Cup.

Points from Pars as Carson strikes: A fortunate goal line clearance after Sutherland hit a defender standing on the line was the best opportunity of a close first half that Inverness just edged, but there was no scoring at the break. The visitors opened the scoring ten minutes from time when MotM David Carson cut in from the right, jinked inside and smashed a right footer off the post and into the net. That was Carson's first goal for the club in his 47th appearance and a vital one it was too. Inverness held on comfortably thereafter to take all three points North and move up to fifth in the table.

Thick and fast: The games are coming thick and fast and it's another fraught weekend ahead as we travel to East End park, Dunfermline, to take on second top 'Pars' for a 3:00pm kick-off as the league enters a crucial stage with only seven games left for the Caley Jags to determine where we finish this difficult season. April will be a tough month with games coming up against Morton (a) Queens (a) Dundee (h) Hearts (a) Ayr United (h).

McCann breaks his duck: Inverness beat ten-man Raith Rovers thanks to a tidy second half goal from Dan Mackay who had controlled a kick out from Ridgers before lifting the ball over keeper MacDonald for the only goal of the game. We were never troubled for long spells but struggled to impose ourselves against the ten men after Iain Davidson was sent off after a midfield clash. A welcome three points and a first win under Neil McCann.

It's only half time! The second phase of the double header is at Stark's Park Kirkaldy as Inverness head South on Tuesday night for a 7:00pm kick-off. Part one ended all square in an enthralling no scoring draw at the Caledonian Stadium last Friday night in front of the BBC cameras and a covid restricted crowd of 000.

Despite some glaring opportunities for both sides, the score remained blank at the interval. Ugwu sinned a couple of times and Musonda too, but the biggest sinner of all was our own Roddy MacGregor who failed to get the ball past the bodies lying on the goalline from three yards. What an opportunity, what a miss and goalless at the interval. More chances went abegging after the interval and Sean Welsh hit the post with a header. Saves misses and good fortune ensured this entertaining game ended all square.

Down Down Deeper and Down: After the lethargic jaded performance on Tuesday night comes the visit of second place Raith Rovers, the first of a double header against the Kirkaldy side who we play again next Tuesday night at Starks Park. First up we are at the Caledonian Stadium where points are at a premium for both clubs but for different reasons. This game can be seen on BBC Scotland on Friday night with a 7:45 kick-off.

Abysmal shitfest: A stormy evening saw no goals at the break. Todorov came closest when he hit the post just before the interval. Could it get worse? The answer was yes when Aidan Nesbitt drilled a low shot into the net from the edge of the box with Inverness unable to make any headway. With twenty minutes left you could see the game slowly drifting away from the hosts. Sutherland hit the woodwork again and Todorov's follow up 'goal' was ruled out

No rest for the wicked and we face Morton at the Caledonian Stadium on Tuesday night, the game kicking-off at 7:00pm with live streaming available from Caley Jags TV. In this cut-throat league we have got to the stage where a play-off slot is achievable. Unfortunately, that's more likely at the wrong end of the table although both options are still available with only ten games left for us. We could go a long way to relieving some of the pressure on ourselves by beating Morton who have fallen just below us in the table, but we are Caley Jags and we don't take the easy options.

Alloa's man of the moment Innes Cameron opened the scoring in the 17th minute driving home from fifteen yards before Nikolay Todorov levelled with an equally tidy finish ten minutes later. Alloa had the better of the chances thereafter but it was level at the break. Inverness ramped up the performance after the interval but were unable to get the winner. James Keatings and Shane Sutherland brought out great saves from Parry but it finished a point apiece. Alan Trouten was sent off in time added on for a possible off the ball incident. Straight red!

Dundee manager Jake McPake looked to have tightened his shoogly peg as first half goals from Max Anderson and Jason Cummings put Dundee in at the break two up. Nikolay Todorov pulled a goal back with fifteen minutes left. Inverness mounted a mini-comeback but fell just short as Dundee held on for all three points.

At the Crossroads: With our season gradually disintegrating, we head to Recreation Park Alloa to face The Wasps @ the Indodrill Stadium. It's a 3:00pm kick-off on Saturday with both sides lingering at the wrong end of the table, games in hand or not.  Our games in hand are dwindling away and there's little improvement in our league position. Four wins from sixteen games is not the form of a team challenging for a play-off slot to the premiership. This is now a crucial game in our season which is at the crossroads. Which way do we turn?

The Scotty Gardiner grudge game: Some Dundee fans are still seething after some twisted information on Dundee's last visit when their chairman was left hanging by a thread according to some bitter Dee's. Good enough given the way their own club has handled some of the recent votes regarding possible league reconstruction. Short memories. Anyway, they have never really forgiven us for overturning a 15 point deficit to win the Championship by 12 points in 2010. Happy Days! 

Virtual game ends all square: Neil McCann's 'tenure' got off to a tremendous start when Miles Storey made amends for his penalty miss in midweek. He opened the scoring after muscling Michael Smith off the ball to drive it behind Gordon

Virtual game time: It's been a hectic week for the Caley Jags. An away day at Ayr, midweek game in the Highlands, a temporary manager installed, title favourites Hearts visiting the Caledonian Stadium and Neil McCann's first match in the Caley Jags dugout in front of a massive virtual crowd. Welcome Neil and haste ye back John Robertson and Scott Kellacher.

McCann's the Man

 After the game against Alloa Athletic last night, the ICT FC board have announced that former Hearts winger and colleague of John Robertson at Tynecastle, Neil McCann will take the managers job on a temporary basis until Robbo feels ready to resume his position after a recent family bereavement.

Former Scotland winger McCann has previously spent 18 months as Dundee manager. He departed in October 2018 with the Dark Blue's bottom of the Premiership.

Neil has had an illustrious career on the park. He was capped 26 times for Scotland scoring three goals. He played for Hearts over two spells making 99 appearances for the Tynecastle side. In 1998 he moved to Rangers shortly after Hearts lifted the Scottish Cup, where he made 119 appearances for the Gers gaining 3 Premier League titles, 4 more Scottish Cups and 2 League Cup winners medals.

There will be a further club statement released today at a press conference where all will be revealed.

With temporary gaffers Barry Wilson and Ryan Esson taking care of proceedings, it was an energetic start for the hosts. However that was disrupted after twenty minutes when Innes Cameron burst through the middle to stroke the ball into the net as Ridgers came off his line. Against the run of play, but the Wasps did not care and they held the advantage to go in at the break one ahead. Not much was happening until Wallace Duffy thundered a left footer from over twenty-five yards high into the net. What a strike for your first senior goal. One minute later and substitute James Keatings was stroking us up to fifth in the table before the late penalty from Alan Trouten brought us back down to earth. Disappointing to throw away the lead, but there's more to be worrying about that a game of football.

David Carson has returned to action and played a big part in the win at Ayr. Danny Devine has been out recently but he also played at Ayr. We are still without Lewis Toshney and Kevin McHattie on long term sickness benefits and they have been joined by Aaron Doran and loan signing Anthony McDonald. James Vincent was missing at Ayr as well. All three picked up injuries in training with Doran and McDonald possibly out for longer term.

Big call for Robbo to drop four players from Wednesday but they paid dividends with MacGregor, Todorov and Carson all impressing today. MacGregor offers a much more mobile link between our midfield two in front of the defence and the wide players / forward than Keatings does whilst Carson was tenacious alongside Allardice marshalling McCowan well after he moved inside and also breaking forward to support our counters attacks. Todorov showed some excellent touches holding the ball up and Ridgers pulled off some superb saves particularly from McCowan and Walsh in each half.

Should Auld Acquaintances be forgot...

 We travel to Somerset Park, Ayr on Saturday for a 3:00pm kick-off against the Honest Men and renew acquaintances with a couple of former colleagues, namely Tom Walsh and Joe Chalmers.

It's been a difficult few weeks for the Caley Jags with postponements in abundance although we did return to action in midweek after the big freeze relented. Unfortunately, despite dominating the game, we went down 1-0 to Queen of the South when Nortei Nortey scored his first goal for the Doonhamers. We seemed to lack composure or pick the right ball as we failed to unlock the visitors defence and resorted to shooting from distance which keeper Ferguson dealt with comfortably. Failing that, many of our efforts were blocked before troubling the keeper or blazed high and wide which meant a frustrating night all round for the Caley Jags and their supporters.

Third time lucky: This fixture is looking like it might beat the pandemic, snow, ice and water and is scheduled to be played on Wednesday evening with a 6:30pm kick-off. That is unless the strong winds force another postponement. 

Blown Away: Arbroath came off the foot of the table at the weekend after beating Morton, something Inverness had failed to do one week ago. Inverness were starting to flirt with the wrong end of the table after the Morton result. A windy encounter saw Jack Hamilton gave the hosts the lead right on the interval, punishing some weak defending to slot home. Just after the break Shane Sutherland headed Inverness level.

As Robert the Bruce said....If at first you don't succeed.....It's the second time of asking and we are due to play Arbroath at Gayfield on Wednesday night with a 7:45pm kick-off. This game was re-scheduled from 2nd January due to a frozen pitch on that occasion. 

Queens of the ice age: Another rearranged game due to go ahead on Saturday afternoon with Queen of the South the visitors. Should snow, ice, covid or road blockages not stop this one, it is scheduled to kick-off at 3:00pm with live streaming available from Caley Jags TV - Pixie Lott for a £10er.

However, let's not get ahead of ourselves as the words that we all dread have been uttered by the club. "There will be a pitch inspection at 9am tomorrow morning ahead of the match against Queen of the South".  Now there's a surprise!